Portside

In the repressive one-state reality of today's Israel, which Mr. Netanyahu clearly wishes to make permanent, we need a joint Israeli-Palestinian movement to attain those rights and the full equality they imply. Only such a movement can lay the groundwork for the necessary compromises that will allow the two peoples' national cultures to flourish. They should know that Israel is not Judaism. Jewish history did not culminate in the creation of the state of Israel.

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The polarization of American Jews, said Dov Waxman, Professor of Political Science, International Affairs, and Israel Studies at Northeastern University, has increased with each large-scale eruption of fighting between Israel and Palestinians. Jewish Voice for Peace has seen an increase in new supporters, the formation of new chapters since Operation Protective Edge, and in three weeks 50,000 new people signed up for its email updates.

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Increasingly Jews in the United States, in Israel and around the world are finding their voice - speaking out and demonstrating against the siege of Gaza. Many Jews are also questioning what hard-line politics and policies have done to Israel - increasing racism, discrimination and inequality. Sally Gottesman wrote the following letter to her family and friends, after living in Israel the past seven months. She has been in Israel more than 50 times.

I spent 24 hours in jail this week. As an American Jew, and as a person of conscience, I am angry and heart-sick at the death and destruction being wrought by Israel against Palestinian civilians and their homes, schools and hospitals.

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Nugent Gets Dumped; Disney Investment Gets Cancelled; Celebrities Get Deleted; NY Times Gets Called Out; Koch Brothers Get Rejected; Waltons Get Ecumenical

Israel is not my birthright writes a U.S. Jewish author, raised to think the country was ours by divine right. But this horror in Gaza has challenged even my deepest beliefs. The Haaretz' Gaza reporter, daughter of Holocaust survivors, writes, 'If victory is measured by the success at causing lifelong trauma to 1.8 million people (and not for the first time) waiting to be executed any moment - then the victory is yours.'

In my visits to Israel I've met with and been at demonstrations with the thousands of both Palestinian and Israeli activists who know that Israel is at a turning point, that it faces a clear choice. They assert that it is exactly with one's enemies that one negotiates to find peace. Americans - Jewish or not and whether we wish to or not - have the opportunity and the responsibility to ensure that Israel makes the right choice. The United States is not a bystander.